


Above Us Only Sky

by Nokomis



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-06 00:35:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nokomis/pseuds/Nokomis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy watches tv with Captain America now, because this is somehow her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Above Us Only Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Written for gala apples for the prompt of someone who wasn't Tony/Bruce explaining to Steve that they were together. I... had a lot of trouble working out a scenario that fit, character-wise, and this is what I ended up with.

The whole concept of Avengers Tower had seemed convenient on paper, entertaining in theory, and was annoying as hell in reality. It took a certain type of personality to want to dress up in a costume and fight crime, and unfortunately it was not a type that was easy to get along with.

SHIELD had decided, after the first few disastrous weeks, that perhaps some sort of liaison should be in place, to at least try to avoid some of the clashes between Avengers. Darcy wasn’t really sure how she’d been elected for the position – she seriously suspected that she’d pissed someone off at some point, though her interactions with SHIELD had been limited right up until Jane had solved her bridge problem and hauled her mega-hot honey back through the a magical glowing portal. 

Then suddenly SHIELD had been up in everyone’s business _again_ , and before the ink had dried on Darcy’s brand-new degree she’d found herself working for them. Well, technically _Jane_ , but SHIELD had a way of worming their way into things, and suddenly Jane’s lab was located in Avengers Tower and Darcy had received a ‘promotion.’

Thinking back, she probably shouldn’t have done that Agent Fury impersonation while on SHIELD property. They seemed like the sorts to monitor everything, and Fury definitely did not have a sense of humor.

So instead of sitting around trying to organize Jane’s notes – usually scribbled on napkins, the backs of envelopes and mysteriously stained pieces of computer paper, for reasons Darcy had never quite understood – and checking Twitter, Darcy found herself hanging out in an amazing penthouse, trying to resist the urge to strangle super-assassins and super-heroes. 

She kind of understood these days why Jane had spent so much time on the roof, if this was what being around Darcy herself had been like.

Granted, the job did have its perks. One thing that all the Avengers had in common was that they were stupidly good-looking, and Darcy had always been a fan of eye candy. She also sometimes got to watch TV with Captain America and explain references to him, which was something she could cross off her bucket list. 

And really, the Avengers tended to keep themselves occupied most of the time – Thor with drinking his way through the city to learn of Midgard culture, Natasha and Clint with secret assassinations or whatever it was they spent their time doing, Tony and Bruce doing lab-type things and Steve with his hanging out in depressing places while pretending he wasn’t in the future – so Darcy got to spend a lot of time working her way through the truly awesome collection of vintage video games that was hooked to the entertainment system. And, well, going downstairs to pester Jane in her lab, because some habits were super hard to break.

The other major perk is that Darcy knew _all_ the most awesome gossip, even though SHIELD’s terrifyingly threatening confidentiality clauses meant that the only person she got to gossip at was Jane, who was more concerned with space particles than superhero parties.

There weren’t any global threats attempting to threaten the globe on Thursday, so Darcy found herself on the couch with Steve Rogers, scrolling through Tony Stark’s tivo, trying to find something that wouldn’t force Captain America to give up his faith in his country. She was ninety percent certain that Tony only recorded MTV reality shows _for this express purpose_.

“Cupcake Wars it is,” she declared.

“Are cupcakes really that important?” Steve asked after a minute. He was wearing the puzzled puppy-dog expression he normally wore when confronted with the twenty-first century’s idea of entertainment. 

“They do look like some damn tasty cupcakes,” Darcy offered. She hadn’t really given much thought to how odd it was to watch people make food she wouldn’t get to taste, but Steve’s awkwardness with everything modern constantly made her aware of how silly some things were. She kicked off her shoes, propped her feet on the coffee table that probably cost more than her college education, and glanced over at Steve. (It was still super weird to be even _thinking_ of Captain freaking America as ‘Steve,’ but that was where Darcy’s life had ended up.) He quickly looked back at the television.

Darcy blinked a few times, and she only just managed to keep her mouth shut before she asked him if he had been checking out her rack. Even Darcy had lines she wasn’t willing to cross, no matter what her mother claimed.

Luckily, she was saved from rethinking her decision to stay silent by Tony and Bruce arriving. They were rumpled in a way that meant they’d either been making out or else doing some really interesting science together, which actually wasn’t a code for anything when it came to those two, because apparently science actually could be a turn on for people. Darcy had been astonished to learn that. Even _Jane_ didn’t get all fired up by hours upon hours staring at equations.

Bruce ducked his head when he noticed them on the couch, but Tony was shameless in all things and took a short bow and said, “Sorry that we won’t get to enjoy your absolutely scintillating looking evening there on the couch, but Bruce and I have interesting things to be doing. In the bedroom.” Then he winked, just because Tony Stark was that sort of man.

Darcy briefly considered asking if there was spectator seating available, but then she remembered Captain America beside her and the blushing Dr. Hulk beside Tony and instead just blew them a kiss and said, “Have fun!”

And Jane said she needed to learn to be circumspect.

Tony beamed at her and basically dragged Bruce back to the bedroom, and Darcy sighed and leaned her head back against the couch. “Well, at least some people are having fun tonight.”

Steve didn’t reply. When she looked over at him, his brow was furrowed.

She nudged him with her elbow. “Spill, super-soldier. What’s up?”

“It’s just…” He looked off in the direction of Tony’s bedroom. “I’m still missing a lot about. Society. Is it considered okay…” He trailed off.

“For two dudes to boink?” Darcy finished tactfully. 

Steve didn’t actually look like he wanted to clutch at an imaginary pearl necklace at that, but Darcy still thought she should tread carefully. Condensing the entire gay rights movement was a big order to fill, especially when you were talking to a living icon. “Short answer is yes.” Steve didn’t look shocked, but then, Darcy thought, he’d been around Tony for a while now. “I mean, there are still prejudced shitheads out there, and there are a lot of things like marriage rights that haven’t progressed to the point that they really _should_ , but… People are people and love is love, you know?”

Darcy really shouldn’t be allowed to teach anyone anything. Steve was looking at her earnestly and she really couldn’t form sentences that made coherent sense even in her own head. SHIELD should bottle up his expression to use as some sort of weapon. Weaponized adorable. So she just said, “Um. What do you think?”

“Love is love,” he repeated. “I like that. I don’t think anyone should be judged for their differences.”

Darcy smiled at him. She knew that he hadn’t always been the giant hunk of muscled perfection that he was today – his offhand comments every once in a while told her that he’d been just the opposite, before – and it made sense that he didn’t want anyone else to suffer because of the way they were born. “You’re a good man, Cap.”

He shrugged in that self-effacing way that he had, and Darcy only just managed to resist giving him a big smooch. Steve did wonders for her self-control.

“Want me to teach you how to play Mario?” she asked. “There’s an old-school NES that I think you would totally rock at.”

Steve took his controller with only the slightest hesitation, and Darcy spent a lot of the next hour yelling for him to stop randomly jabbing buttons, that they each had a _function_ , but Steve seemed looser, somehow, like a weight she hadn’t noticed on him had been lifted.

She’d never noticed before how much Steve cared about his teammates, but then it occurred to her that this group of exceptional outcasts was all that he had. He worried about them, more than he’d ever let on. 

It was kind of gross, how inspirational and crap that he managed to be even when he was trying to hide it. Darcy would have totally teased him about it but she didn’t want him getting all self-conscious.

So she sat there playing Mario with a living legend. And he kept bumping against her and smiling at her in a way that made her want to ask him out for milkshakes or something else utterly wholesome and then ravish him afterwards. And from the way he keeps brushing against his hand against hers… she thought it might not be entirely out of the realm of possibility.

She wondered if Fury would demote her if she wrote him a thank-you note for giving her this job.


End file.
